Pacific Plate

[puh-sif-ik pleyt]

noun

Geology.

1. one of the major tectonic divisions of the earth's crust, comprising four seafloor basins: separated from the Nazca, Cocos, North American, and South American Plates by the East Pacific Rise and San Andreas Fault and bounded in the western Pacific Ocean by a series of major ocean deeps, including the Kuril, Japan, Mariana, Kermadec, and Tonga Trenches.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Pacific Plate¹

First recorded in 1960–65